A Fascinating Show

Verdi's 'I Due Foscari' at Los Angeles Opera,reviewed by MARIA NOCKIN

I due Foscari is one of Giuseppe Verdi's historicaloperas and since it tells of a Doge, it has some similarities to his 1857 opus, Simon Boccanegra. Francesco Foscari, who ruled Venice as Doge from 1423 to 1457, had made vicious enemies during his rise to power. He had three sons but two had died of plague before our story begins. At the beginning of the opera, only one son, Jacopo, is living, and his father's enemies accuse him of bribery and murder...